Are You a Redundant Printer?

We don’t mean redundant as in not needed. What we mean by "redundant printer" is one who needlessly prints the same piece twice. Redundancy can be funny (visualize belt and suspenders), it can be good or it can be a waste of time, effort and money. We’ll look at the ways redundancy can be good or funny and then let you decide if there is anything good or funny (or useful) about redundant printing.

You Can Tune a Piano but You Can’t Tuna Fish

Why do people talk about tuna fish? What’s a tuna if not a fish? No one talks about salmon fish or trout fish. This type of redundancy (called Pleonasm) has found its way into everyday usage. Here are a few others:

“…receive your free gift” - We hear this so often, we ignore the silliness of it. How can anything be a gift if it isn’t free?

“hot water heater” - If you have hot water, do you need to heat it more? Perhaps, it would be more precise to call it a cold water heater, or maybe just leave it at water heater.

There’s another type of linguistic redundancy described on the internet as RAS syndrome (or “Repetitive Acronym Syndrome” syndrome). Do you have RAS syndrome? If you are guilty of using any of the following terms, you definitely have it:

“ATM machine” - Automatic Teller Machine machine

“LCD display” - Liquid Crystal Display display

“Pin number” - Personal Identification Number number

“VDP printing” - Variable Data Printing printing (we know we have RAS)

"Please RSVP" - RSVP is French for répondez s'il vous plaît, or "respond if it pleases you". So, we have "Please respond if it pleases you". Maybe sticking with English acronyms would cut down on RAS.

The What Failed?

There are circumstances when redundancy is good or even critical. Commercial airplanes have redundant control systems to avoid becoming expensive falling objects should the primary controls fail. Hospitals have redundant electrical power supplies (such as backup generators) since doctors aren’t too good at operating in the dark. While those are cases of critical redundancy, sometimes redundancy is simply good. Like chocolate cake with chocolate frosting topped by “Death by Chocolate” ice cream type of good. Have you noticed that choco-holics seem to take perverse pleasure in being redundant?

Redundant Printing

Everyday, hundreds of printers use their digital presses to print postcards (or other self-mailers). They then take the already printed postcards (plus the overs) to a mail house to have someone else print addresses on them with an inkjet printer. Digital presses are certainly capable of printing addresses (better than an inkjet), and the printers’ click charge won’t increase due to printing addresses. Therefore, inkjet addressing qualifies as a type of redundant printing. Factor in all the extra handling, the paperwork, transportation, the hassle and so forth, and it’s hard to find anything funny or useful about this type of redundant printing.

How to Stop Being Redundant

Yes. We know exactly why this type of redundant printing occurs everyday... something about creating print files. We also have a solution that permits printers to print, cut and drop off their self-mailers at the post office - skipping the inkjet addressing and the mail house.

It’s the newest addition to our EZ-VDP^SM services…EZ-VDP^SM Addressing.

Designed for small self-mailer jobs, it eliminates the issues (and costs) involved with using a mail house for inkjet addressing. If your mail house has a minimum charge for inkjet addressing that's more than $40, you ought to take a look at this new service.

Read more about EZ-VDP^SM Addressing…

Finally, there is no need to point out our raging affliction from RAS syndrome. We simply refuse to stop using terms such as “VDP printing” and “VDP print files”.

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